At first, we tried to keep both the bike ride and the interview going, but we had trouble hearing Loggins over the high winds, so he had to hop off to talk. In general, the man responsible for Danny's Song, Danger Zone, Footloose and many more seems to be into constant, forward motion.

Loggins is doing a trio of concerts with the Nashville Symphony, but he also made a recent appearance with the Blue Sky Riders, a trio he's formed with Nashville songsmiths Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman. Fans also may have seen him in animated form earlier this month on FX's cult hit Archer.

Loggins talked about all of these recent activities, what artists have impressed him with their covers of his songs, and how a favor for a friend resulted in one of his biggest hits.

Question: We've seen just a clip of your recent appearance on (animated TV series) Archer. That seems like it was fun, quick career detour.

Answer: Yeah, I'd hoped to be able to do the voiceover with some of the other characters, but everybody does their voices from their homes. They're not even acting together anymore. I think they know each other's inflections so well, they just anticipate it. So the director just kind of took me through it.

Q. I know the Blue Sky Riders have been together for a few years. What possesses you at this point, to start a new band? Is it liberating?

A. Well, it's primarily because I wanted to stay creative. I wanted to keep writing, keep recording, and I kept getting this intuitive hit on working with Gary. And then subsequently, I got an idea of bringing in a girl, and I knew he would know who (to bring in), so I called him and said, "We need a third, and it's gotta be a female songwriter, and you know who it is." He said, "Yeah, I'm sitting right here with her." He was on a date with Georgia at the time I called, and they're married now.

Q. Is there a song of yours that takes on a new life when it has an an orchestra behind it?

A. Yeah, well, the first one that pops into my head is Conviction of the Heart, which works really well with a symphony. And then a song called The Real Thing, also from the Leap of Faith CD, that orchestrates beautifully. And Danny's Song, the classic song from many years ago, sounds beautiful with strings on it.

Q. Speaking of Danny's Song, the first time I heard it, it wasn't your recording. It was a punk rock version by a band called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. It made me wonder - have there been cover versions of your songs over the years that have really surprised you, or took the song in a direction you didn't see coming?

A. Well, of course, I think it was Poison that did Your Mama Don't Dance, and I didn't expect that. But the one that caught me most by surprise was a Kirk Franklin remake of This Is It (2007's Declaration). He turned it into a spiritual, and completely rewrote the melody, with the exception of the bridge and the opening line of the chorus, and he used the first verse, but other than that, he completely rewrote the song. It's very cool. I took his version and did a hybrid with my own, and I when I have the right band with me, I do a version of that live that really kicks. Because it's hip-hop, the younger girls in the audience all get up and dance (laughs), because it's undeniable. The groove is very cool. But the older audience probably sits there going, "What the (hell) is that?" But the younger audience loves it.

Q. I'd imagine some songwriters would take offense to their song being dissected and reassembled, but it sounds like you're into that idea - or at least the way (Franklin) handled it.

A. Yeah, I'm not so precious about the songs that I have. I like hearing reinventions and seeing where they can go. Actually, Common did a sample on Celebrate Me Home. He did a Christmas thing on it, and put it in 4/4, and the song, as I recorded it, is in 6/8. But he moved the phrase one beat and turned into a 4/4 thing, and it's very cool.

Q. These days, sync deals are huge in the music business â?? getting songs placed in movies and television. Back when you did I'm Alright, was it a different landscape, a different attitude towards having a song in a movie?

A. Oh, it was dramatically different. When I did I'm Alright, you didn't hear - most pop music was not in movies. It was a brand-new thought. We wondered if pop music would even work in movies. Jon Peters left Barbra Streisand and went solo, and the first movie that he produced was Caddyshack, and he knew that it had to be a rock and roll soundtrack. He was young enough to get that idea. So he called me up, because of my relationship with he and Barbra for A Star is Born. Once I did that, one of my best friends, Dean Pitchford, he had been a lyric collaborator with me, on songs on my own album. He wrote a screenplay called Footloose, and as a favor to him, I wrote couple of songs for the screenplay. That turned out to be a favor for me.